While nothing can escape the gravitational vortex of a black hole – not even light – gas and radiation rage in a swirling eddy around the brink of the abyss.

It is this point-of-no-return precipice, called the Event Horizon, that astronomers have tried to observe for the first time.

The EHT project was launched in April 2017.

Sagittarius A (SgrA), the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, is some 26,000 light years away.

Images of SgrA are likely to show a lopsided ring of brightness due to gravity bending light closer to the black hole more strongly than light further away.

The project may help scientists struggling to marry together two apparently incompatible pillars of physics, Einstein’s theory of general relativity and quantum mechanics.

The first relates to laws of nature on cosmic scales, while the second governs the weird world of subatomic particles where it is possible to be in two places at once.

Physicist and black hole expert Lia Medeiros, from the University of Arizona, US, told ScienceNews magazine: “If general relativity buckles at a black hole’s boundary, it may point the way forward for theorists.”

The EHT’s other target, M87, is notable for shooting out a fast jet of charged subatomic particles that stretches for some 5,000 light years.

The new observations are expected to provide clues about M87’s magnetic field, which may be linked to the jet mechanism.